Thursday, December 23, 2010

December 23rd's In The NHL

The NHL has a penchant for the Christmas Eve, Eve (CE2) schedule. Tonight for example, there are 13 games/26 teams on the ice for your pre-Christmas viewing pleasure. But how well have teams fared since the Lockout when they can smell the Christmas turkey in the oven?

The Eastern Conference on 23 December

Where an OTL/SOL counts as one-half of a Win, the Eastern Conference overall has a .524 winning percentage on 23 December. In order with percentages, they stack up like this:

So the Eastern Conference is pretty consistent at a bit over .500 on CE2. The above would imply tonight that:

ATL has a better than average chance of beating BOSWSH is likely to take down PITTBL can beat the NYRNJD, notoriously bad on CE2, may win against NYI tonight for the coaching change intangibleIf MTL smells the plane’s seat leather, they will lose to CARBUF has a decent chance of beating FLAAnd OTT might not beat NSH as they are .600, but have lost on the road the last two seasons

The Western Conference on 23 December

The Western Conference overall has fared a bit better than their Eastern Conference brothers at a .550 winning percentage for CE2. Western overall percentages are:

So the Western Conference overall is over .500 on CE2, but win less than one-third of the time on the road. So tonight’s possibilities include:

A virtual toss-up for VAN at CBJDET might have a slight advantage at STLAs we said above, NSH has a slight, potential edge over OTTDAL should defeat CGYCOL will have a close, possible win over MIN The LAK are the likely victor over EDMAnd SJS gets the nod over visiting, Bryzgalovless PHX

Summary

So tonight, the West’s winning dominance over the East it is likely to continue with a NSH victory over OTT. All other games are intra-Conference, with the home team holding a slight statistical advantage and likely to take eight of 12 other contests.Just some fun facts for tonight as we all remember going into the holiday season to give thanks for Hockey!